discipline

According to Mobile Payment Network, Lu Lei, a member of the Party Committee and Vice President of the People's Bank of China, stated at the 15th China Payment Clearing Forum that intelligent agent payments must not blur the boundaries of responsibility between consumers, operating institutions, and algorithm systems. Lu Lei believes that the essence of payment is the transfer of fund ownership, which objectively requires that the results of transactions are predictable, responsibilities are definable, and traces are traceable. Large models and autonomous intelligent agents have characteristics such as output randomness and insufficient transparency of logic. If transaction decision-making authority is blindly or excessively granted to intelligent agents, it will affect the trust foundation of fund transactions. The current governance rules of the payment industry and dispute resolution mechanisms are built around "humans as the final decision-makers in transactions." The new model of intelligent agents automatically initiating and assisting in transactions easily blurs the boundaries of responsibility, and the existing governance rules need to be optimized and improved.Regarding the issue of insufficient compatibility of protocol standards in the field of intelligent agent payments, Lu Lei emphasized that the dispute over protocols is essentially a dispute over business rules and technical standards, as well as a struggle for dominance in the era of artificial intelligence. The People's Bank of China continues to strengthen its tracking research on technological innovation, especially intelligent agent payments, guiding the Payment Clearing Association to leverage its advantages in industry self-regulation. Based on extensive soliciting of opinions, they will formulate and publish the "Self-Regulatory Convention for Intelligent Agent Payment Applications," and will continue to work on coordinating protocols and standards, as well as innovating risk governance. Lu Lei proposed three hopes to market institutions: actively respond to and implement the industry self-regulatory convention, with payment security and risk prevention as the bottom line, and consumer rights protection as the focal point; continuously track the trends of cutting-edge technologies such as large models and intelligent agents both domestically and internationally, and build technical reserves and application capabilities; adhere to the principle of rules and standards first, strengthen coordination and compatibility among different protocols and standards, and cooperate with regulatory authorities to promote the construction of a foundational protocol and technical standard system for intelligent agent payments.

Research institution Digitimes stated that with the surge in AI-driven infrastructure spending, major cloud service providers are expected to place greater emphasis on operational efficiency and financial discipline in the second half of 2026. Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft reported a combined cloud business revenue of $106.3 billion in the second quarter, with an annual growth rate accelerating to 43%. These companies are expected to increase their total capital expenditures to $74.5 billion.

The China Payment and Clearing Association issued the "Self-Regulatory Convention for Intelligent Agent Payment Applications," which regulates the behavior of member institutions in initiating and executing payment instructions using large models and other artificial intelligence "intelligent agents" in payment scenarios. The convention requires banks, non-bank payment institutions, clearing institutions, and others engaged in intelligent agent payment applications to adhere to the principle of "who provides the payment service is responsible," and to implement cybersecurity, data security, and privacy protection.The convention proposes the establishment of "Know Your Agent (KYA)," a hierarchical management system for intelligent agents, and a full-link identity transmission mechanism, strengthening model robustness and traceability, anti-money laundering and anti-fraud controls, and setting stricter authorization and risk control measures for vulnerable groups such as the elderly and minors. The convention will be implemented from the date of its release.

As the probability of Kevin Warsh becoming the next Federal Reserve Chairman significantly increases in the prediction market, Bitcoin further declines, nearing a low of $81,000.Markus Thielen, founder of 10x Research, points out that the market generally views Kevin Warsh's regained policy influence as a bearish factor for Bitcoin, due to his long-standing emphasis on monetary discipline, higher real interest rates, and tightening liquidity. His policy framework tends to regard crypto assets as "speculative products in a loose monetary environment," rather than tools for hedging against currency devaluation. Higher real interest rates mean that the true cost of financing rises after accounting for inflation, which typically suppresses demand for risk assets, including Bitcoin. Additionally, several observers believe that a hawkish stance and underestimation of deflation risks may have exacerbated economic downward pressure that year. If similar thinking continues, it could lead to higher unemployment rates, slower recovery pace, and greater deflation risks.

ChainCatcher News: The website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission of China recently published an article pointing out that the integrity risks in the construction of financial information systems are becoming increasingly prominent, especially the issues of "difficult management, difficult supervision, and difficult accountability" caused by high professional and technical barriers.During the investigation of the corruption case of Yao Qian, the former director of the Science and Technology Supervision Department of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the discipline inspection and supervision team stationed at the CSRC discovered that he used virtual currency for power-for-money transactions, which were highly concealed and difficult to gather evidence. Yao Qian accepted huge bribes through his position, providing assistance to others in the procurement of information systems, involving project contracting, fund allocation, and other aspects.In response to the issues exposed by the case, the discipline inspection and supervision team proposed supervision opinions to the CSRC Party Committee, urging the strengthening of integrity risk prevention and control in information system procurement, and reinforcing system construction and implementation. At the same time, it emphasized the need to strengthen the education, management, and supervision of professional and technical personnel, especially the "top leaders," to correct the erroneous thinking of some cadres who believe their integrity risks are low, and to enhance their political awareness and discipline consciousness.In November last year, Yao Qian was subjected to disciplinary review and supervisory investigation by the discipline inspection and supervision team stationed at the CSRC and the Shantou Municipal Supervisory Commission in Guangdong Province for serious violations of discipline and law. This case further highlights the importance of integrity risk prevention and control in the field of financial technology supervision.